1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer and a facsimile machine or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in an image forming apparatus that executes a plurality of jobs and stacks sheets relating to such execution of the jobs on a sheet discharge tray, the sheets relating to the execution of the plurality of jobs have mixedly existed on the one sheet discharge tray. Therefore, cumbersome work to find the sheets relating to each job has occurred, and work efficiency has been decreased.
In this connection, there are technologies for changing a discharge position of the sheets discharged to the sheet discharge tray in each job, or technologies for differentiating a discharge position of a first sheet of each job from those of the other sheets thereof.
For example, JP-Tokukai-2004-268354A discloses a printer, which includes: a number-of-copies setting unit that sets the number of copies to be bundled in the case of a job of sorting the sheets per the number of copies; and a system control unit that controls a sheet discharge control unit to sort the sheets per the set number of copies.
Moreover, JP-Tokukai-2006-12011A discloses an image forming apparatus that forms a banner image of a user name or the like on a predetermined position of a sheet, which is associated in advance with the discharge position of the sheets, in the case of changing the discharge position.
However, such a technology disclosed in JP-Tokukai-2004-268354A is a technology for assorting the sheets per the set number of copies in a job in which a large number of copies are set. Moreover, such a technology disclosed in JP-Tokukai-2006-12011A is a technology for assorting the sheets for each job by the sheet on which the banner image is formed. Accordingly, for example, when a large number of jobs, in each of which the discharged number of sheets is small, such as one, is continuously executed in variable printing, and the sheets stacked on the sheet discharge tray are packed in boxes for each predetermined number of sheets, the sheets cannot be assorted per the number of jobs, and it is necessary for a user to count the number of sheets stacked on the sheet discharge tray, and to assort the sheets.